Visitors to Hawaii for the first half of the year spent $7.4 billion, a 2.5 percent increase over the first half of 2014, according to the Hawaii Tourism Authority.

Average daily spending rose 2.3 percent to $196 per person, with total arrivals actually off .1 percent, to 4,094,951 visitors.

In just the month of June, visitors spent $1.3 billion, up .3 percent from last June.

Travelers from western states dipped 1.1 percent, the eleventh consecutive month of decline, while arrivals among Japanese visitors rose 7 percent.

The island of Oahu greeted more visitors, while the neighbor islands saw fewer, as compared to June 2013 arrivals.